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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual beamed suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who said she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had publicly stated to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in public records: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which expected respect when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously indecisive monarch was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the removal of designations and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to surrender his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The message from the institution was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.